Lost and Found
by Eva Faust
Summary: What happened when Rose faded away? How did she cross over? Who helped her? A continuance of Season 4, episode 1, where Rose fades back into the parallel universe she now has to call home.
1. Chapter 1 The Chance of a Lifetime

Rose looked away.

"Well!? Did you find him!?" Mickey smiled dimly at her in stupid hope.

"Nuh." Is all Rose could say as her throat burned fierce with a need to cry.

"Ah well…" Mickey sighed, "we can try again in…" he looked at his watch, "ten days."

Rose gave into one deep sob before collecting herself and dismissing Mickey's oncoming hug, turning her back on him and walking clumsily down a set of steep stairs. She wasn't in the mood for his sympathy.

She stood at the base of the tower she had just stumbled down, looking up at the spiraling serpent like construction which had been two years in the making. Funny, she thought as she examined it's intricate detailing all over the outside, resembling an archaic form of circuitry, how it seemed that if you touched it, it would all come tumbling down.

The cold wind bit her cheeks as she turned away and headed towards her car. The streets were as empty as they always were at night these days, the footsteps of Mickey echoing behind her as she opened her car door.

"Oi! What's this then? You can't just go, you have to tell me everything, I need to know what happened!"

"What for?" Rose groaned as she slumped in her car seat.

"It was meant to take you to the Doctor. If it didn't…"

"If it didn't!? IF!?" Rose fired up, rising to her full height directly in front of him. "It bloody well didn't take me to him, alright!? There were police barricades, a woman jumped off the roof or something, people all round, but no Doctor. No blue box, no aliens, no nothing."

"Well, did you look? Cause to me it sounds like his m.o."

"YES I bloody well looked. I didn't have much time if you can recall. Now I'm tired and I just want to go to bed."

"Well fine, but you gotta do readings and stuff tomorrow, give me a detailed account, ya know? Now go on home." Mickey kicked the car in mute frustration.

"Ha!" Rose scoffed as she sat down in her car and jammed the keys into the ignition. "Yeah…right…home." She slammed the door and drove off.

Mickey watched as she sped away, kicking a rock with his foot and looking around the empty streets. "Oh bloody hell…" he said to himself as a realization dawned on him. "WAIT! STOP!" He yelled out to Rose's car as it turned the corner, out of sight. "How the hell am I gonna get home now!?" he puffed as he chased after her to no avail.

Truth was Rose hadn't felt at home at all since she'd left the Doctor behind. The TARDIS had been her home for so long, the only place she'd felt right, felt accepted- felt worthwhile. The tower was going to be her one big chance to really go home. It didn't seem right that it didn't work out. She'd changed the world to find the Doctor, but in the fleeting moments she had, he still wasn't found.

She pulled into the driveway of the house now called 'home'. It was large and full of useless trinkets like chandeliers and china, pretty to look at but in a fight against the Cybermen, useless. The china particularly bothered her, what's the use of owning plates you can't eat off. She'd adopted a very practical nature as of late, but her mum loved them, and she loved her mum, so she put up with it.

As she walked to her door, her mum swung it open and embraced her. "Oh thank God you're ok. So it worked, did it?" That dim hope spread across her face aswell.

"Uh, yeah, it worked, kinda. Anyways, I'm gonna head upstairs." Rose feigned a yawn and tried to pass Jackie.

"Oh no you don't!" Jackie grabbed her daughter by the arm. "Somebody is here to see you." She dragged an unassuming Rose into the house and shut the door behind her.

"Get off it!" Rose muttered as she dusted off her jacket. She looked up across the chandeliered entrance hall to see her visitor. She had a sharp intake of breath as her heart skipped a beat and her stomach leaped into her throat. Rubbing her eyes however allowed her to see the true nature of her visitor.

"Oh, it's you." She took in the sight of him. He was tall, skinny and just a little foxy. A spitting image. But his hair was flat, his suit wasn't pinstriped and his shoes were of the more formal variety. It was mostly his face that made him different though. His eyes had a little less soul, and his smile had a little less glee. "Well, what do you want then?" Rose strode past him, removing her gloves and placing them on a side table in the sitting room next door. She sunk into a big lounge chair next to the table, in front of the fire, and stared hard into the embers which flickered and danced before her eyes.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, sunk his hands into his pockets and turned on his heel to face her. "Well, I just wanted to see how it went, you know…" he scratched his eyebrow and looked down at his feet for a moment, "I did invent the thing, well I say 'invent' but..." He paused, scanning Rose's face. "You didn't find him, did you?"

"Nuh." Rose stared harder into the fire.

"I'm sorry." The Doctor bent at the knee next to her, examining her face and then looking into the fire.

"You know, you said that it would bring me to him. You said it couldn't bring me any other place, or any other time." A tear trickled down Rose's face. She felt beyond sadness, beyond anger, beyond frustration; all this hope she had now twisted and writhed inside of her, turning on her, eating her up from the inside out.

"It's the Bad Wolf…"

"Bad Wolf, Bad Wolf, the bleedin' Bad Wolf. I don't give a DAMN about Bad Wolf." Rose stood up and hunching over, looked down into The Doctors sad, awful eyes. "I sent myself a message, beyond time, beyond space, to here, to now to take me back to the Doctor, MY Doctor, and we built that stupid tower and I crossed the stupid rift and now I'm back here. He wasn't there. He just. Wasn't. There."

The Doctor looked away towards the fire again as Rose sat back down. He shifted his seating position, stretching his legs out in front of him while leaning back on his elbows. After a short, heavy silence, he scrunched up his nose and said in a higher octave, "Did you look hard enough?"

Rose groaned, "Oh here we go."

"Well, I mean, if I was the Doctor, and… I am the Doctor; I would be running around a lot, sonic screw-drivering things, messing about, chasing aliens and the like. I'm a fast moving, go-getting, wayward kinda guy, I never look back and I don't really stick around to look for pretty girls with blonde hair." He looked from the fire to Rose, who stared at him with a mouth that was a little gaped and with a little spark back in her eye. "Just a suggestion."

"Oh you think you know it all, don't you? Well let me tell you, I looked."

"Yeah, sure, ok, well, I should get going." The Doctor bounced up and headed toward the door.

"Oi, I did look." Rose stood up promptly and tailed him as he strolled into the entrance hall. "I waded through crowds, snuck into buildings, searched through alley-ways looking."

"Mmm…ahuh…" the Doctor noted her words, distractedly, reaching for the front door handle. "I'll come back tomorrow, and then we can talk about how much you looked." The Doctor looked at her knowingly with a small smile stretched across his face.

Rose felt a fresh chill roll down her spine and couldn't help but return the smile, if only a little. "I thought you were a 'go-getting, wayward kinda guy', since when do you organise house-calls?"

"Ah, see, that's probably the difference between your Doctor and I, I enjoy a good plan every now and again. Like to know where I'm going to be tomorrow. Never really works out mind you, but still…" And with that the Doctor opened the door and shut it decidedly behind him.

Rose headed to bed, feeling a little better after that exchange, if not a little confused. She hadn't slept soundly in quite a long time, but at least that night, she almost felt like she had a tomorrow worth looking forward too.


	2. Chapter 2 Doctor Two

Rose woke up the next morning haunted by her dream. She was in Darlig Ulv Strand, Norway and it was that day again. It was a recurring dream she'd had since it had happened, and it'd played out in her head just as it had happened those years ago, with one exception. After the Doctor disappeared, in stead of turning away, she looked past where he had stood to the horizon. There she saw a man, pale of skin, naked with black eyes. She looked into him as he looked into her and suddenly it was night. Her dream would continue until she tried to look away, at which point she would wake. Sometime she would have this dream 3 or 4 times a night, this night she'd only had it once as she spent the night looking into the eyes of this pale figure, searching for something, anything, an answer maybe.

Her room was bright as she sunk low into her covers, into the warmth and comfort they provided. At once Jackie stalked in and pulled the covers off her. "Come on, get up, I've made you a cup of tea and some eggs."

Rose stumbled out of bed, yawning and stretching, clambering down the stairs and sleep walking into the dining room. Her eyes were barley open as she reached for her toast and found a hand instead. "Wh…what are you doing here?"

"Told you I'd be here tomorrow…which so happens to be today." The Doctor smiled as he bit into a crispy bit of toast.

"It's 6 o'clock in the morning." Rose exclaimed incredulously, blinking her eyes as she looked at her watch.

"Ahwell, nothing like a fresh start. These eggs are brilliant Jackie!"

"Thankyou, glad to see someone appreciates my breakfast." Jackie spoke more to Rose then to the Doctor.

"Oh, now that's just put me off my food right there." Rose pushed her seat back and stood up. "You two getting along is just…wrong. I'm going to go wash, have fun now kids." Rose smiled sarcastically and stomped upstairs to the bathroom.

"I just don't understand her sometimes," Jackie shook her head in Rose's direction, "spoiled is what she is. Oh look now what she's done, she's woken up the baby with her stomping around." Jackie put down the cloth she was using to wipe up the table and left the Doctor behind, alone, eating his toast. "Coming sweetheart."

When Rose returned downstairs, having taken her time scrubbing up, she found the Doctor sitting at the table staring into space. She sat opposite, waving a hand in front of his face. "Hello…?"

"Oh…uh…" the Doctor looked at her, away again then back at her. "Yes, sorry, what were you saying?"

"I wasn't saying anything." She paused as he looked away again. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, uh, quite. Sorry. Distracted. So." He banged both palms on the table, pushing himself back into his chair and then standing up, jutting his hands into his pockets and turning away to look around the room. "Tell me about last night."

After giving him a quizzical look, Rose answered. "Well, there isn't much to tell really. It was a weird sensation, and then suddenly, poof! A crowd of people, a dead woman, and no Doctor in sight."

"And you looked…?"

"Yes, yes I looked around, broke a few rules, and a few locks. Didn't talk to anyone, well, one woman spoke to me but…"

"So no sign of him?"

"Nope, no sign." Rose folded her arms on the table and sunk her chin into them, looking at the Doctor with wide eyes. "You're so similar to him, but, so different." She watched him pace the room randomly, looking at everything but her. "It's like…it's like you're missing something he had. He was always walking around with the weight of the universe on his shoulders, but he still had a spring in his step." She saw him stop, seemingly entranced by the pattern on the china in the glass cupboard in front of him. Rose raised her voice slightly. "I've been watching you…the past couple of years, trying to figure it out." She watched him pull out his black rimmed glasses, inspecting the pattern closer. "Trying to see what's different about you. You slink in and out of here, sacrifice you're ability to go to the ends of the universe and back, for me, a girl you never met before."

"Is this Russian?"

"You're not listening. You never listen. You ask questions. Then you leave. Then more is added to the tower. Then you come back. Then you ask more questions. I don't even know where you go!?" Rose stood up and walked towards him hurriedly, getting in between him and the Russian china.

"Right, well, I think I'd best be going, things to do, places to be." The Doctor backed away from Rose, turning around to head for the door.

She grabbed his arm. "No, don't go." Her words were stunted by a short intake of breath. She had never touched him before. Not on purpose. Not once in the entire two years. She thought that if she tried, her hand would go straight through him and he would disappear. He was the closest thing she had to her Doctor and she couldn't bear to see him gone.

The Doctor looked at his arm and then back at Rose as she pulled her hand away from him, holding it awkwardly suspended in the air. Rose looked at him and as he stepped back, she stepped towards him gently and asked softly, "I need to know what happened, why you are so different?"

The Doctor rubbed the back of his head and turned away. "Well, you know, what's different? What's different to you could be the same to someone else, if they were standing far away, like on a hill. Anyway, distance, perspective, parallel universes, cause and effect. It's all relative. Speaking of relatives, here comes one now. Hallo Mr Tyler!" The Doctor shook Pete's hand jovially, taking the distraction as a chance to make a beeline for the door.

"Oh, no you don't!" Rose pushed her bewildered father out of the way and followed the Doctor out the door into the front garden. The air was fresh and the grounds were whitened with morning fog. She saw the Doctors outline fading down the driveway."Doctor! Come back!"

He stopped. Turned on the spot and headed back towards her determinedly. She quickened her pace and met him in the middle of her front yard.

"I just want to know your story. I need to know." Rose pleaded with him, yet with determination rather then desperation lacing her voice.

"The only thing you need to know Rose is that I am not him. I am not the man you knew. And I never will be." The Doctor gave her a stern, terrible look, then, turning around, stalked off towards the gate without so much as a glance back.

It was later that afternoon when Mickey came riding up the driveway on his motorbike, cursing Rose's name. Rose was sitting on the front balcony, staring into space, after deciding to take the day off from her duties.

"Oi! You forget something!?"

"Huh?" Mumbled Rose, glancing at him casually as she pulled her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear.

"Last night, I didn't have a way to get home. I had to walk home. I could've been killed!" Mickey threw down his helmet and folded his arms.

Rose stood up and moved towards him, putting her arms around him. "I'm so sorry Mickey, I wasn't thinking. I just wasn't thinking at all."

"Damn right you weren't thinking." Mickey sneered and looked away.

"Anyway, I'm sure you handled yourself really well, under the circumstances. I mean, you're alive, not eaten, are you?" Rose smiled at him and Mickey, faltering momentarily by looking at her, was suddenly seduced by her charms.

"Well, yeah, I did alright, on my own. Had a tranc on me." Mickey shoved her off him, turning to face her then kicking the dirt beneath his feet.

"Those wolves never stood a chance." Rose laughed and punched his arm gingerly, making Mickey give into a slight smile in the process.

"So, talked to Doctor Two yet about what happened?" Mickey moved towards the balcony, sitting down with a deep sigh.

"Yeah, he…"

"…just asked questions and took off?"

"In a nutshell." Rose sighed, and sat down next to Mickey, crossing her legs and resting her chin on his shoulder.

"He's a nutter, that one. I wonder where he goes?"

"Me too."


	3. Chapter 3 Bee like Accuracy

Five days had passed before Rose saw the Doctor again. She had been working hard with the animal control faction of Torchwood, a section of the organization established solely to find some means to end the nightly wolf invasion they'd been experiencing for two years. This had served as a great distraction, however fruitless it seemed. She had received intelligence of a breakthrough in wolf control in Austria, where they had been employing a viral warfare strategy to kill off the beasts, or at least cause them some hindrance. The virus was of alien decent, and while it worked for a matter of 2 hours, the wolves built immunities quickly and soon the virus spread to humans, and an anti-virus was released into the populace immediately.

Strategies like this popped up monthly from all over the world. The wolves seemed immortal, unable to be killed, and almost impossible to be stopped in their tracks. The only thing that seemed able to stop them was tranquilizers, and those only lasted a minute or so. The only solace anyone could find was that they only appeared in the night, and there were no home invasions on record. As of yet, all attacks occurred outside any form of shelter. Rose was exhausted by what seemed a losing battle, and though he frustrated her, welcomed the presence of 'Doctor Two'.

"Someone looks busy." The Doctor strode into Rose's office, craning his neck to look at all the papers sprawled out across Rose's desk.

"Wolves." Rose said darkly, without so much as looking up.

"Ah yes, well it's your own fault, you know."

"Ah, don't start. When I said 'Bad Wolf' I didn't think I would be so damn literal about it." Rose looked up. She noticed the Doctor looked a little paler then usual. "What's happened to you?"

"Oh you know, a bit of this, a bit of that…and some cheese. Anyway, I have some news."

"The bad kind, I'm assuming." Rose chimed, sitting back in her chair.

"Since when were you a pessimist?" The Doctor enquired, picking up a miniature slinky from the desk while propping himself against it, playing with the toy with mild childlike amusement. "I love these things."

"Since I had a great be chunk of leg taken from me, I'm sure." Rose gestured towards a bite on her right leg, given to her two years earlier by one of the first wolves that had appeared.

"Still going on about that, then aye? Ought to be glad you have a leg at all. Some people lose legs, some people are born without them, some people are born on planets where having legs is considered sacrilege and they are cut off at birth."

"Yes, yes, the planet of no legs, I get it. What's this news then?" Rose sat up, slightly curious.

"Yes, right, well, I've made the tower more accurate." He announced proudly with a ginger smile planted on his face.

"What do you mean, 'more accurate'?" Rose felt bubbles of hope boil inside of her.

"Well, you see, it's like a game of darts. Well, no, it's like playing a game of darts except with a live bee as a dart and the board is really, really, _really_ far away. You see, you're the bee, and the board is the Doctor. And what I'm trying to do is throw you at the board with the TARDIS. But the board has to be at the rift and the bee has to be given…ah, this bee analogy is going nowhere." The Doctor grabbed a chair from the corner of the room, dragging it towards Rose he sat in it, his eyes staring into hers. "Alright, so the TARDIS supplies you with a tunnel within time through the rift, to get from this world to that. You are naturally attracted to the TARDIS in the parallel universe, so when you step through the rift, the time tunnel is altered and you end up close to where the other TARDIS is. Got it?"

Rose nodded.

"So, as you know, the time vortex is more complex then that, and the TARDIS can't be quite as accurate as one would hope, most of the time. Last time you ended up in a general area, in a general time frame inclusive of the other TARDIS's residue. But now I've made it more precise, I've narrowed the time tunnel." The Doctor gave Rose an even bigger smile.

Rose looked back at the Doctor disconcertedly. "But…how?"

"Because I'm that good Rose, because I'm that good. Haha!" The Doctor stood up excitedly, bending himself over the desk, bringing his face close to Rose's. "I'm going to put you back where you belong Rose. Just you wait, four days and you will be back with your Doctor, and all will be right with the universe. Well, as much as it can be." The Doctor stood upright and left promptly without a goodbye, leaving behind an excited yet somewhat bewildered Rose.


	4. Chapter 4 Run!

That night Rose lay awake in bed, even more restless then usual, her mind tangled between thoughts of her old life and her new one. She stared at the ceiling as she turned memories in her head, until she settled on the one memory which truly got to her, that of her first encounter with Doctor Two.

It had been only weeks since that dreadful day in Norway where she'd encountered the Doctor for what she thought would be the very last time. She'd been working hard at Torchwood in Canary Warf, the eradication of the Cybermen had been an arduous job, and the result left a lot of devastation across the world. Their work at Torchwood had become inextricably linked to aiding the recovery process, but only recently Rose had been concentrating her efforts on the town's sudden bee infestation. She was exhausted, and had decided to take her first real day off in a year.

She walked through the streets of Cardiff, hot chips in one hand, stuffing her mouth with the other. She hadn't had good chips in a while, and these were divine. She looked into all the shops, contemplating extravagant purchases which had nothing at all to do with necessity. Stopping at a shop window, she gazed upon something magnificent; a little black dress- intricately made with details of silk and lace, scooped low at the bust and nipped in at the waist. Rose couldn't remember the last time she wore a dress, let alone bought one. Her eyes traced the perfectly stitched seam as she felt a tantalizing longing sensation creep into her. Ah, might as well go in, try it on, she thought, couldn't hurt.

With that, she entered the shop maneuvering her way cunningly through the racks to her desire. As she picked it up, contemplating it in its full glory, she felt eyes upon her. Her first thought was the sales-person was watching her, ready to pounce, but as she looked up she saw the lady on the phone, her fingers weaving in and out of the cord, completely distracted. She looked back at the dress, no longer really looking at it, feeling the eyes burrow into her hard. She just knew some creep in the store was staring at her. She took a deep breath, sucking up the courage to turn around and tell him to sod off. As she spun on her heel however, all she saw was the tail of a brown coat out of the corner of her eye, leaving the store.

Without really thinking, she dropped the dress and ran out of the store. She looked left, and then right, then left again, and spotted a figure in a long brown coat striding away towards the direction of Canary Warf. She hot footed after him in direct pursuit, dodging the odd person, keeping her eyes fixed on the figure. Her pace quickened as she saw him turn a corner, of which she knew lead into a blind alley way. All she saw when she reached it was a bright red phone booth, and the mans coat tails as he slipped inside.

She ran to the booth and pulled on the door. It wouldn't open. She tugged and tugged but it wouldn't budge. She then noticed something incredibly peculiar. Phone booths had glass windows all through them, and this one was no exception. You could see inside quite clearly, a pay phone and a dirty old phone-book under a flickering fluorescent light, yet there was no man inside. Her heart raced, she knew, it had to be, it couldn't not be, a Time Lord.

"Time Lord! I know who you are! Open up!" She yelled as she banged hard on the front glass panels. There was no response. She took a deep breath and yelled again. "You're a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey and this is your TARDIS! No open UP!" She faltered in exhaustion, "…please." She leaned against the door, scared if she wasn't touching it, it would leave. She felt the door jiggle against her back, and heard a very familiar voice.

"Well, I can't exactly come out if you're leaning against the door." She felt a big shove, and stumbled to the ground as her heart suddenly stopped. She spun around and looked up in quiet awe. There he was, all six foot one of him, looking down his nose at her.

"Doctor…?"

"Yeah, that's me, well, I think, I mean, I'm not an actual doctor, though I do have that honorary degree, anyway, that's not the pressing question, the question that needs to be asked here is…" He stretched his hand out to Rose. She dismissed it silently, steadied herself with her hands as she stood up and dusted the dirt off her jeans. He inspected her with his eyebrows raised. "Who are you?"

That's when Rose saw them; the little differences that made him not hers, the shoes, the suit, the hair, but mostly his eyes. Those deep, dark, alarming eyes that seemed sadder and even more lost then her Doctors ever were. Her heart beat again as she took a deep breath, and looked momentarily away, collecting herself.

"Well, not going to tell me then? I suppose you don't have to, I do love a good mystery." The Doctor stepped towards her, looking her up and down, resting his elbow in his hand as he pointed at her attributes. "So, you're blonde, pretty, a bit of a chav."

"Excuse me!?" Rose shifted away from him, slightly offended.

"You could be clever, possibly brave, well clever enough to know who I am, brave enough, or stupid enough to approach me even so. Ah but most of all, and this is the best bit, the most interesting bit, you're somehow wrong." He bent down slightly, taking out his black rimmed glasses and inspecting her closely.

"Wrong!? How do you mean, wrong!?" Rose felt quite bizarre, standing there on show, inspected by a man who she knew better then most and yet not at all.

"You don't belong, somehow…"

"Huh." Rose scoffed. She was slightly relieved and then again slightly disappointed that in fact, for once, she knew more then the Doctor.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, came a huge BANG! A bang so loud it set all the car alarms off on the street. Rose turned to see people crouched on the pavement, and cars stopped in the middle of the street. "That came from Canary Warf! Oh no!" She said as she ran towards the noise. Halting for a moment, she turned to see the Doctor simply standing there by his TARDIS. Not moving. "Well come ON!" She called out to him, gesturing with her arms that he should follow her.

She ran through the dissipating crowds, watching them scuttle off home. People in Cardiff had learned that with loud noises comes death and destruction, and thus headed home at the very first sign of danger. The Doctor followed close behind, keeping his eyes on her the entire way.

When she reached Canary Warf, Rose stopped, momentarily scanning the building for any sign of difference. At first she couldn't see anything, although the building had been evidently evacuated, but as she felt the Doctor at her back, she saw it.

"Look at that" he said, pointing towards the top level of the sky-scraper. Rose could already see: the room was glowing.

"Oh bloody hell!" Rose snatched her clearance card out of her pocket and sprinted to the front entrance, the Doctor hot on her heels. She scanned her card, stepping inside the vast, empty reception hall. "Right, the lifts will be down because of the evacuation, we'll have to climb the stairs." Running towards the fire safety doors, she suddenly remembered how many stairs there really were to climb.

She looked to the Doctor, and as if he had read her thoughts he said, "You know, I can rig the lifts to work again." Rose's heart leapt with excitement as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and headed towards the electric panel which controlled the lifts. They both climbed into the first lift that lit up, but the excitement was somewhat dimmed under the lifts fluorescent lighting, as they stood side by side with a strange awkward silence hanging in the air.

After what felt like decades, Rose stated quickly. "I'm Rose, by the way. Rose Tyler."

"Ah, nice to meet you Rose Tyler." The Doctor gave her a grin, and then resumed looking at the rising numbers at the top of the lift.

The lift doors opened to a room that glowed silver. So strong was the glow, it was impossible to see anything else. Both Rose and the Doctor stepped out cautiously, scanning the room as well as they could. "This way!" Rose said gesturing toward the place she was certain the glow was coming from. The place she had hoped would glow once again.

The doctor followed her obediently, but as they stepped into the room, pushed ahead of her and told her to stand back. The wall was rippling, like a pebble dropped into a pool of water. The Doctor approached it with trepidation, Rose following close behind, looking over his shoulder, shielding her eyes from the strong glow. "Incredible," he said, "absolutely incredible."

"It used to be a rift," chimed Rose, eager to help. "It was closed not so long ago. I was told if it opened again, the universe, everything would collapse."

The Doctor turned to look at Rose with concern. "No, no, no, no, no, yes! This isn't a rift, Rose Tyler, well it is, but it's something different. Something very different indeed."

"What do you mean?"

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the rippling wall. He then removed his black rimmed glasses and replaced them with the 3D looking glasses Rose had been so familiar with on her final day in her old universe. "Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes, no….yes!" The Doctor said as he turned to face Rose. He then stumbled back slightly, as if startled, and then removed his glasses, looking closer at Rose. "Oh Rose…"

"What!?" Rose said, backing away slightly.

"You're glowing gold." In that moment Rose looked at her hand. She was indeed glowing gold, but she had little time to contemplate the fact as another big BANG prevented any further thought. The building shook and both Rose and the Doctor fell to the floor.

The Doctor looked up at Rose, clambering to his feet he reached out to Rose to help her up. Again, she refused his hand and stood up herself. They both looked back at the wall in unison to see a giant crack form. The Doctor looked at Rose and she looked back at the Doctor. "Something's trying to get through." He said. "RUN!"

They both dashed to the lift, the Doctor using his sonic screwdriver to open it. The deafening roar of the building cracking and crumbling around them surrounded them as the lift went down. They heard a sudden screeching sound as the lift came to a jolting stop. They both looked up as Rose whispered "Oh no," under her breath. The lift began to free-fall, banging them about inside. In the last moment the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to catch the cord and the lift stopped with a bang. The Doctor opened the door and both him and Rose climbed out, Rose still dizzy, hurried towards the exit which was opened at a distance by the Doctor. Rose stopped at once when she was outside, bending over to catch her breath.

"Don't stop!" The Doctor called out to her, as he ran steadfast toward the alley they had come from originally. Rose turned back to see the building she had worked at for over a year crumble from the top, all the way to the ground floor. Rubble was flung left and right and Rose tore through dust clouds towards the alley way the Doctor had just disappeared into.

As Rose turned the corner, she heard the sound; that beautiful and terrible sound, the sound of the universe she knew and loved so well, and watched as the red phone booth faded away.

"Well…" Rose said, "that's just plain rude."


	5. Chapter 5 You Bad Wolf

Rose was alone, covered in dust, standing on an empty street, looking at the building she'd worked in for a year turned to rubble on the ground. The sun which had been so high momentarily disappeared, cloaked by thick black smog. She looked to the blackened sky, studying the space where the room she had just fled sat. There the sky was cracked with silver, like a lightning bolt had permanently cut the sky. She studied her hands in front of her, they still glowed gold, and as more black smog poured out of the crack in the sky, her glow only grew stronger.

The smog seeped down from above and weaved through the streets, shops, skyscrapers, bridges and now abandoned cars of London. She followed the silky movements all around her, feeling surprisingly calm and centered amongst it. She noticed the smog spread thicker and faster, rolling away in all directions, snaking around corners and beyond her own limited perception. The darkness grew deeper as the sun went down, and Rose soon found her own glowing body as the only light source around her.

The quiet of the town enveloped her, but the sudden sound of a soft growl in the distance knocked her out of her calm as she started and turned to face its origins. The growl rumbled through her, getting louder as it grew closer. She took a quick step back, bumping into a bin behind her. Soon she could hear it so clearly that she was sure the cause of the sound was directly in front of her. As she stepped forward with all manner of caution, her glow grew stronger, and soon she was able to make out the terrible growling creature before her.

At first she saw two piercing big black watery eyes, her own glow shining like flames in them. Then she saw the shine of its white teeth and the pink of its drooling tongue. Soon she was able to make out its wrinkled snout, its bulbous head and its curled back ears. As its giant paws padded the ground closer to her, she saw the sleek shine of its jet black coat and, as it was almost the same height as her, she found herself practically face to face with the giant monstrosity. A wolf it was, and such a wolf, with long languid movements rippling through the air, and a growl that grew so fierce it echoed through Rose's brain. Rose watched it pause for a moment, as if to consider her, and then crouch down low ready for the attack.

Rose didn't take time to consider the wolf's intentions; she turned immediately and ran blindly down the street with the speed and agility one can only muster at the height of an adrenaline rush. Its footsteps rushed behind her, swift and light, seemingly dodging every obstacle in its way. Rose was in a sharp state of panic, she had nowhere to run. She could only see an arms length in front of her, and was completely unable to distinguish a door from a wall to escape into. She could almost feel the wolf's hot breath at her neck as she pushed her body beyond its own limitations, forcing it into a quick sprint. But then she tripped, tripped on a deep crack in the road. She felt her bare hands scrape against the cold asphalt. She pushed her body around, scrambling back, her eyes dodging back and forth through the darkness. She could hear the wolf, but she couldn't see him. She tried to get back up, keep running, but she had twisted her ankle and fell to the ground once more, in a tremendous amount of pain. It was then that the wolf pounced.

"Oh no you don't, you bad wolf!" The wolf had bitten clear through her calf when Rose had heard his voice, through the pain, from the heavens. The Doctor zapped the wolf with some device, and lifted Rose onto one leg by her upper arm. Suddenly Rose felt woozy, and it was then that she lost consciousness.

Rose woke to the voice of her mother. "Oh look, shoosh, she's waking up. Rose…darling, you're at home. You're alright. Oh no she's drifting off again."

"Maybe you should slap 'er?" She heard Mickey's voice in the distance. "You know, wake her up."

"Rose…" she felt a gentle tap on her cheek, "Rose, dear." And then a big slap. "MICKEY!"

Rose snapped out of it. "What the heck was that for!?" She tried to sit up but her head spun out of control as she lay back feeling a little sick.

Jackie gave Mickey a stern look. "I should give you a right good slapping, I should."

"Well it worked, didn't it!?" Mickey puffed out his chest and then bent over Rose in concern. "It was the Doctor that brought you here."

"He's not the Doctor." Rose said through a sudden headache. "He's not the bloody Doctor we know." She tried to sit up again, this time feeling a sharp pain in her leg.

"We've had a doctor in…a real one." Jackie said turning to a corner of the room Rose couldn't quite make out through her hazy eyes. "He stitched you up, gave you some shots, and filled you up to the brim with pain killers. Says you should be alright as long as we keep the wound clean."

Rose felt her mums fingers run through her hair and welcomed the touch. Suddenly, out of the dark corner she heard a familiar voice once more. "Leave us, we need to talk."

"Oh no I'm not leaving you alone with my daughter, look what happened to her, look what you let them do!" Jackie stood up to her full height, and Mickey stood along side of her, both with looks of pure disgust on their faces.

"Look, it's alright mum…I wanna have a word with this…Doctor myself."

"But sweetheart…"

"Just go."

Mickey and Jackie headed for the door in defeat, but as Mickey left, Jackie turned to the Doctor. "You touch one hair on her head, one hair and I swear I'll…"

"MUM!"

Jackie looked to her daughter, then to the Doctor and then exited in a huff.

"Well she's pleasant, isn't she?" The Doctor swaggered towards the edge of Rose's bed looking back towards the door and then at Rose as she stared at him with dagger eyes.

"You left me." She said in a sinister tone. "You left me there, alone, and I almost got KILLED!"

"Well I came back didn't I? Anyway, I was only, say…a hundred meters away, or thereabouts, up in the sky, at the crack."

"Why didn't you take me with you? It wasn't safe down there, and you knew it. I know you did!" Rose looked away from him, her eyes filled with tears of abandon.

"Well, you know, I don't normally take in stowaways…"

"Stowaways!?" Rose was in a sudden fury.

The Doctor stepped back from her rage, looking at her quite perplexed. "You know, I don't normally let _people_ on board my TARDIS. It's not really a safe environment for someone who isn't, well, quite as clever as me."

"But you _always_ have someone with you, _always_! A companion, an assistant, a little robot dog…"

"A robot dog? That seems a little undignified, even for me."

Rose was confused, so entirely confused that she felt wearied from it. "So…you don't have a companion…?"

"Nup." The Doctor balanced himself on his heels, scanning the room momentarily and then looking back at Rose with an almost surprise.

"Never have done?"

"Nope."

Rose contemplated this for a moment. "Did my mum tell you…about where we come from?"

"Yep, she filled me in on everything I hadn't worked out for myself, including how her favourite daytime soap was never created in this universe, which is a shame for her…I suppose…" The Doctors words drifted off as he looked more sternly at Rose. "Tell me about Bad Wolf." It was more direction then question.

Rose sat silent for a moment, working out a way to explain without giving away too much. "It's a message, it's a message I spread throughout the universe, through space and time, to direct me to a certain moment in time in order to save the Doctor." Rose corrected herself. "My Doctor."

"Ah yes, and how exactly did you manage that?" The Doctor enquired superficially, giving Rose the idea that he already knew the answer.

"I absorbed the time vortex."

"And you didn't, say…die?"

"No, I didn't bloody well die, obviously. The Doctor…my Doctor saved me." Rose studied the expression on the Doctors face. It was his 'deep thought' expression she had been so familiar with. It almost made her smile.

"Well!" The Doctor startled Rose with the abruptness of his voice. He pulled up a chair close to the edge of her bed, sat down and faced her directly, so directly that Rose felt compelled to shift back in the bed a little. "Have I got something to tell you!" The Doctor beamed.

Rose stared at the ceiling remembering every word he had said. Those words changed her life. They changed how she saw the universe, how she saw the Doctor, how she saw herself.

"You mean, I did this? I've…changed the world to take myself back to the Doctor." Rose sat up. It was a lot to take in all at once.

"Yup." The Doctor smiled. "It's absolutely incredible. You're absolutely incredible. Well, future you, that meaning past you, that meaning you as you are, as you were and as you will be."

"Uh…" Rose gave him a small confused look. "Thanks?"

"It's just superb, you humans, give you the power to control time and space dimensions and all you think about is love."

Rose blushed slightly.

"You managed to open the rift, contain it so the universe wouldn't collapse and send through millions of furry, albeit a little over the top, messages all in a moment, one single moment, stretched beyond infinity. And you made yourself the key, the key to open it all up and to lock it all behind you. I must say, I'm impressed. And I don't often say that, you know."

"Yes I know." Rose couldn't believe what she was hearing. She turned to look out her window, it was daylight now and all the wolves were gone. "Where do they all go?"

The Doctor turned to face the window. "Well, on their home planet it's never daylight, so I'm honestly not quite sure."

"So…if I pass through the rift…"

"…and find the Doctor…"

"…yeah, they will all be…?"

"Sucked up into the rift as well, along with any other message you've left yourself here."

"But, even when I cross the rift, how will I find the Doctor?" Rose felt her stomach climb into her throat. He really could be anywhere.

"Don't you worry Rose Tyler. You being here is wrong, and I'm going to make things right."

"But how?" Rose didn't want to let go of her cynicism so quickly, and she wasn't sure she even trusted _this_ Doctor.

"I'll tell you how, Rose, I'm going to build you a way to find your Doctor and leave this world behind." His smile was genuine and effortless. He bounced to his feet and Rose watched him walk to the door, turning to her once more with a cheeky wink and then with a small creek and a bang he was gone.


	6. Chapter 6 Waiting

And that was it. The Doctor flitted in an out of Rose's life as she and her Torchwood team tried to control the Wolf population, as well as taking on many other alien and domestic problems. Rose had been aware, through Torchwood, of the Doctors existence in this universe. His sudden presence in her life had shocked and confused her, but it wasn't a complete surprise, after-all, Torchwood was created initially as a defense against the Doctor, and contained records of him easily obtained through her father. What bothered her most however, after the day he had promised to help, was his determination to sacrifice everything for her.

Not only had he dedicated his efforts to sending her home, he sacrificed _his_ home, the TARDIS, as a means to do so. In the following months she watched the single-handed construction of the tower, the Doctor had told her that it wasn't to be touched by a single outsider's hand. That wasn't very hard to organise; half the population of London had evacuated the city after what was to be known as 'Wolf day'. The other half chose to stay as far away from 'ground zero' as possible. At the very base of the tower stood the Doctors TARDIS, shaped now as a dome with a small hatch at the top, with hundreds of wires spiraling out the sides. The construction grew into a twisted Eifel tower like monstrosity, black and spiraled like a serpent, curved towards the crack in the sky as if ready to strike. The Doctor covered it in metal panels that resembled circuit-boards, fastened from the ground up, in continuing patterns that bore a striking resemblance to running wolves, so striking that occasionally, out of the corner of her eye, she thought she had seen them running up towards the sky.

She tried quite strenuously to ask him 'why?' Why was he helping her? Why did he stay behind? Over and over he dodged her questions, walking in on her without saying hello, and leaving without saying goodbye, asking hundreds of questions and never answering a single one. She grew tired of his 'typical' behaviour and refused to even bother asking him about her dreams. They'd started after 'Wolf Day' and hadn't ceased, always the same, over and over. They drove her mad. The only thing that kept her going was the thought of being back with her Doctor, back where she felt right.

The two years went by quickly as a result. She buried herself in her work and occasionally let herself get lost in daydreams of being in the TARDIS, watching the sun envelope the world, holding the Doctors hand. When the day had finally arrived, she hadn't even seen Doctor Two for a month. He had given his instructions directly to Mickey, to which he passed on to her.

"Never one to say goodbye I suppose." Mickey tried to cheer Rose up, as she looked around at her old life for possibly the last time. It didn't feel real then. She didn't feel like she'd find the Doctor. She didn't feel like the universe she had been calling home these past few years would close behind her. She wasn't sad, or anxious, or so much as worried. Apathy and cynicism had overtaken her as she believed when she stepped through her self made rift, she would sooner die then come out the other side.

She had however, come out the other side, into her old world. Her heart pumped hard as she sped through the crowds in the limited time she had, searching for her Doctor. She couldn't find him, and as the minutes swept away, she grew disenchanted by the whole thing. Rose spent the last minute of her time simply staring at the body of a dead woman from behind a crowd of passers by, flat on the ground, blood seeping out onto the cracked pavement beneath her. Great red pools absorbed into the earth. She then simply felt the pull of the other universe, and strolled back into her other life as one strolls home after a long day, disappointed, heartbroken, but not in the least bit surprised.


	7. Chapter 7 Chips!

The next morning Rose decided to visit the Tower. She thought hard about avoiding the place until the big day, but for some reason she felt inexplicably drawn to it. After the Doctor's illuminating bee analogy, Rose felt a bubbling uncertainty grow inside her. Like an acidic reflux, it rose from her stomach and burned in her throat. She couldn't place it, but knew she wanted, no, craved to see Doctor Two again. She knew that seeing him would make her feel at ease. So she drove.

Her car crept through the quiet streets, humming in the morning dew as it approached its wanted destination. Stepping outside, the icy air kissed her cheeks and she strolled waywardly towards the tower's base, the TARDIS, mostly staring at her feet. She was kicking the gravel when she bumped into Doctor Two's back. "Ow!" She said more out of awkwardness than pain, stumbling backwards slightly as she looked up at him.

He gave her a displaced sideways grin, turning quickly back to observe his massive creation once more. "Beautiful, isn't it?" He asked in a rhetorical fashion.

Rose could almost feel his swell of self pride radiate off him. She didn't want to add to his egotism. In stead, she gazed up at the monstrosity with all due repulsion. She thought suddenly that it looked as wrong as she felt. As wrong as Doctor Two said she was. Beautiful? She thought. It wasn't beautiful at all.

The Doctor turned to her with an odd expression on his face. "Chips!" He stated abruptly. "I have a huge craving for chips."

With wide eyes of surprise and a bit of a grin, Rose followed Doctor Two's magnificent stride towards the chip shop on the corner.

"Ah, here comes my one true faithful customer!" The well rounded shop owner exclaimed as Doctor Two and Rose walked in. "I've already started cooking them, you're right on time! Take a seat." He pulled out a chair for Doctor Two, who humbly nodded in his wake and then pulled out a chair for Rose. "Who's the pretty girl then? I think I've seen you round hereabouts miss."

"Yes, you probably have." Rose trailed after a long moment of silence where she tried to judge as to whether he was the kind of shop owner that was actually interested in conversation or if he was simply being polite. This shop owner practically pulled up a chair for all the interest he was taking.

"Ah Johnny, those chips smell lovely, just lovely. Business doing well?" Rose was taken aback at Doctor Two's candor. He was actually being friendly, to a human.

"Oh you know, the occasional passer by. Been picking up a bit lately. Not as many wolves around here these days, seems they're spreading to the countryside instead. Must prefer the fresh air, and the cows, no doubt." John chuckled and returned to his work behind the counter. He served them up four paper satchels of chips with a bottle of vinegar on the side. "Bon appetite!" He bowed gracefully as Doctor Two smiled graciously back, and tucked in.

Rose simply looked at him. "Made friends, have we?"

Doctor Two looked up from his gorging, "Oh, Johnny? Him and I go back, way back, all the way to 1979. Best chips in the universe. Never eat them anywhere else."

"Hang on…" A sudden thought occurred to Rose. "I've been here before…the night I met you, I got chips from here."

"Yup!" Doctor Two talked through a mouth full of chips. "That's where I spotted you. Blonde thing eating chips, looking wrong and all that."

"So you followed me?" Rose grabbed a chip and remembered how divine they were.

"Yes well, couldn't just let you roam the streets, looking out of place."

"Always have to fix things, can't let sleeping dogs lie." Rose smiled coyly.

"Well you were hardly sleeping." Doctor Two winked cheekily and went back to his chips.

Rose feigned offence but then gave him a big smile and proceeded to stuff her face. "Can I ask you something?"

Doctor Two kept eating, licking his fingers and pouring vinegar on the next bag of chips.

Rose didn't wait for an answer. "I, well, you see, I'm not going to be around soon, and you know how you're always so quiet about your past and all that. I respect that. I just wanted to know…" she paused. Rose doubted he would open up now, after two years of nothing, but she felt she needed to at the very least try once more. "I just wanted to know why you've never had a companion."

Doctor Two looked up from his food. His expression was dire. Sad. Thoughtful. He studied Rose's face with his big brown eyes and dropped a chip from his hand before dusting his hands off and running them through his hair.

Rose stared him down. "I'm only here for 3 more days…less. I feel like after everything, I kind of deserve…to know something about you."

"I had one. Once. A long time ago. Human. Young. She…" Doctor Two faltered. He stared hard at his chips.

"She died?" Rose didn't hesitate. She felt she knew this even before she asked.

"What? No." Doctor Two stirred from his trance. "No, she left. She saw me for who I truly was…am, and she left."

"Who you truly are?" Rose sat up slightly in her chair, moving unconsciously towards him.

Doctor Two was lost in thought. He didn't respond to the question or to the gesture. He continued on his own tangent, looking past Rose's shoulder through the glass windowed door. He described his youth, his time on Gallifrey, his very first journey to Earth. The little detail he gave said so much. "It was the first planet I travelled to on my own, in my own TARDIS. I stepped onto the green marshland, the rain poured down and the grass squelched beneath my feet." He looked up with a small smile. "England, 1884. She was…she was…" He trailed off, stuffing his face suddenly with a handful of fat chips. "She was fantastic." His words spat at Rose, muffled in his mushy mouth.

Rose sat for a while in quiet contemplation. She'd forgotten about the chips in front of her and simply gazed at Doctor Two's hands grabbing for them in silent gluttony. As the food supply depleted it finally occurred to her that she really didn't know the Doctor at all. Not just Doctor Two, but her Doctor. The man she loved. She knew who he was to her, but she had absolutely no idea who he was, or who he is now. She'd seen him once transform his appearance in front of her eyes. But it wasn't simply his appearance that had changed. It was as if the entire _idea_ of the Doctor had transformed into something else. Both incarnations were incredible. Absolutely incredible. But so different.

She thought of all that history he must have. All the stories he never told her. All the people he had known. She'd never ever stopped to think. She ran with it, and now she felt choked by it- choked by the Doctors past. "I'm such an idiot!" She whispered fervently under her breath.

"Nah…just human." Doctor Two cocked his eyebrow as he glanced up at her, a bit of glee crossing his face. It was as if he could read her mind.

Rose allowed her forehead to weigh down her arm, thinking hard about her past, and her future. "What am I going to do?" She said more to her knees than to the sudden stranger sitting opposite.

Doctor Two didn't answer. Rose heard him slap something down on the table and scuffle his feet as he strolled towards the door. Then there was a pause and Rose looked up to see Doctor Two watching her. "Are you coming?" He asked, and with that he walked out the door.


	8. Chapter 8 Love, the Sun and the Moon

"The thing is Rose. Love, it isn't about here." Doctor Two poked her forehead but maintained a serious face. "It's about here." He poked her heart, and kept it there as its beats grew faster, heavier. He pulled it away and looked at the road. They were sitting in a gutter on the side of a random street in the middle of the city. They'd spent the day wandering around, mostly in silence. Doctor Two had described a few historical events in relation to particular architectural features of London, from a first person perspective. Rose had been distracted in silent contemplation and didn't add much more to the conversation then the occasional 'ooh' and 'aah'. Doctor Two had essentially become a kind of tour guide and Rose a tourist in her home town.

It was getting dark but Rose didn't notice. Nor did she particularly care. She found being close to Doctor Two and listening to his stories, to be the most comfort she'd had in years. She didn't think about the wolves, and she certainly didn't want to go home.

The sun loomed on the horizon and the sky turned pink and purple, reflecting off the skyscrapers and the sheen of the road. Rose turned to Doctor Two. "They say that it's just a bunch of chemicals in your brain, a kind of reaction to pheromones."

"What, love?" The Doctor turned to her with his nose scrunched. "Naw, that's just a bunch of gobbledygook. No, love is warmth and need, it's blood and life, it surges around your body and never really lets you go."

"That's a bit sentimental, especially for you." Rose shoved his shoulder, and gave him a big smile. She couldn't take this side of Doctor Two seriously. He was normally such a stern, abrasive kind of character.

Before he could respond, a rumbling growl echoed down the empty street. Both Rose and Doctor Two looked up to the sky to see black smog streaming down toward them and settling on the road in a hazy black fog. With determined immediacy, they jumped to their feet, Doctor Two reaching in his coat for his sonic screwdriver.

"They aren't transforming. Why aren't they transforming!?" Rose asked urgently as she scrambled to load her tranq gun.

Doctor Two scanned their surrounds with the screwdriver. The dim blue light gave limited vision of the unusually still blackness. "It's not moving. It's like its frozen midair. That doesn't happen. Does it?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Rose exclaimed, pointing her gun in every odd direction, completely spent of ideas as to what to do.

Then the darkness closed in, pressing Rose and Doctor Two against the brick wall behind. They both felt for a door handle, a window, anything to escape into to no avail. They felt cornered and Rose fell into a mild panic. Then there was a silver glow.

Doctor Two spotted it first and pointed at it with the blue light from his sonic device, reaching for his glasses, squinting through the dark. He tugged on Rose's arm who suddenly felt overwhelmed by a sense of de ja vu.

"Wha…what is it?" She asked tentatively, looking to Doctor Two with wide eyes. She didn't need to wait for an answer. The blackness began to clear and suddenly she could make out a shape. A shape of a man. His white skin glowed silver through the dark, like the sun reflecting off the moon. "Am I…am I dreaming?"

Doctor Two looked at her in quiet awe as Rose's skin began to glow a rich gold, as it did two years previous when they'd first met. Rose stared into the figures eyes, black pools that stared back into hers with a deep sense of knowing. She realised this wasn't her dream, the recurring dream she'd had almost every night since coming to this alternate universe. This was real, and she needed answers.

At that she ran. She sped steadfast to the figure, half out of determination and half out of fear that he might disappear. She felt Doctor Two closing in on her heels, she sensed his arm reaching out for her and she heard his voice yell "Stop!" to the back of her head, but she wouldn't stop. She couldn't. Her heart raced as she sprinted ever faster, beads of sweat forming on her forehead, breath pumping rhythmically through her mouth. As she approached, the figures glow only grew stronger and for the first time she dimly recognised it, not from her dreams but from her life with the Doctor.

She slowed her pace as she approached and heard Doctor Two's feet shuffle to a halt behind. The figure stood tall, lanky and nude, its eyes endless pools of black and its teeth jutting out from its mouth, fang-like. Rose knew he wasn't the same. Not exactly. It was a different person to be sure. It was older, taller, and lanker and had stronger, bigger features- a rigid jaw and a dirty unshaven chin. It was a relic from her past life come back to haunt her, and it only made Rose angry.

"Stand back Rose", Doctor Two placed his hand gently on her shoulder in an attempt to pull her back. In one bold gesture Rose shrugged it off and stepped directly in front of the figure, so her eyes met its in one empty gaze.

Rose stared it down. "There's something of the wolf about you."

The figure began to laugh. It was disjointed and unpleasant. It echoed through the darkened streets and bounced back sharply into Rose's ears. She was not amused.

_You burn like the sun._

Its voice was shrill. It didn't sound as if it came from the figures open mouth, but instead from all the smog in Rose's surrounds. Rose felt Doctor Two's hands on her shoulders once more as she attempted to move even closer to the figure. This time the grip was tight, and she was unable to approach.

"Let go of ME!" She squirmed in a small fury, trying to escape, but Doctor Two would not let go. Rose, feeling this struggle was fruitless, instead turned her fury to the figure in front. "Who are you!? What do you want!?" She spat.

The figure smiled coyly and held a tightly clenched fist to its face, like a grotesque imitation of a geisha hiding behind her fan. _I am the Bad Wolf. _Its voice whispered through the streets.

"Impossible." She heard Doctor Two's voice from behind as he shoved her to the side and approached the figure with sheer resolve. "You no longer exist." It was more a command then an observation.

Rose couldn't help but feel she'd missed something. "But Bad Wolf…that was me! It was just words. It was just a message!" Rose clenched her fists and moved to Doctor Two's side. "Who ARE you!?"

_I am nothing. I am everything. I weave, I sniff, I bite. I'm swift. I'm cunning. I leave the carcass behind to rot. I am the creator. I am the destroyer. I am you. _

Rose ogled the figure with a gaping mouth, unable to process its words, suddenly hypnotized in its sheen. She felt strangle compelled to touch it and proceeded to stretch her arm to the figure. Her golden glow met his silver, and they tangled between. Doctor Two took a sudden step back, examining the two figures with a face of helpless awe.

"You are not me." Rose whispered unexpectedly, irrevocably entranced.

_The valiant child. _The figure stretched his arm towards her, sliding his chilling finger down the edge of her jaw._ So tender. So loyal._ It smiled coyly once again._ Dead and buried. _The voice was razor sharp and stuck like a knife. In a sudden jolt of movement, it turned its' head to Doctor Two. _ The Bad Wolf will bring him down to the grave and lick his bones. _It laughed. Rose watched Doctor Two's face turn white in the silver glow, and for the first time in a long while, she thought he looked scared.

With abrupt fortitude, the figure vanished in a swirl of silver and gold. The black smog fell to the earth and the wolves took form once again.


	9. Chapter 9 Little Red

Rose and Doctor Two ran for it. The smog had cleared but the wolves were thickly abundant, and as Rose shot her tranq gun any which way she could, they dodged, weaved and ducked the snaps and pounces of the monsters in their surrounds. They pressed against a door and felt for a handle which was thankfully unlocked. Falling over one another inside, they scrambled to slam the door in the face of an approaching wolf and as Doctor Two locked it with his screwdriver, Rose fell to the hard wood floor with a thud, out of breath and completely spent.

Doctor Two gave a loud, frustrated yell, and stormed down the hallway then back again, banging the dusty wallpaper with his fists.

'Would you STOP!' Rose covered her ears to the thunderous banging and stomping, bringing her knees to her chest and squinting her eyes in the dust.

'It was meant to be dead. It was meant to be DEAD!' Doctor Two roared and then muted his rage as he crouched to the floor, banging his fist in one more heated moment before shifting from his feet and leaning against the wall. He stared at an old cracked china plate that had fallen in his fit with bug eyes of fury.

They both sat in silence for a long stretch of time, as the dust settled and the howls from the wolves outside lessened to distant echoes.

Rose broke the silence. 'I've seen it before, the figure I mean, when I was with the Doctor.' She didn't want to tell him about the dreams. 'Except, he was different, a different person. But it was the same thing.' She hesitated a moment. 'He was a werewolf.'

Doctor Two scoffed.

Rose furrowed her brow and folded her arms. 'Laugh all you want, but I saw it transform, we _fought _it! It was trying to bite Queen Victoria.'

Doctor Two gave an even louder scoff and shifted to his feet. He walked briskly toward Rose and sat directly across from her, leaning against the other wall. He pointed his finger at Rose. 'That thing…' he hesitated, as if looking for the right words, 'that thing was _not _a werewolf_. _That thing was not of this earth, of this planet, of this Universe!'

'The Doctor said it was a werewolf! A creature from another planet, like a viral strain that wanted to infect the queen!' Rose spat back. She wondered why Doctor Two was fighting her on this.

Doctor Two gave Rose a perplexed look and then looked away, his thoughts visibly ticking through his mind. 'A viral strain?' he questioned, more to himself. He stood up abruptly and began to murmur things to himself, pacing the length of the hallway, running his fingers through his hair. He spun towards Rose and stared her down. 'This 'werewolf', did it say anything to you, anything you can remember?'

'Yeh, it did!' Rose snapped back.

'Well…?' Doctor Two had a hungry look on his face.

'I'm not saying a word until you explain to me what's going on in that Time Lord brain of yours. I'm not thick and I'm not just some sidekick you can mess around with! Not get off your flippin' high horse and tell me what's going on!' Rose huffed and puffed the words out in a way which frighteningly reminded her of her mother.

Doctor Two looked on the brink of explosion for a moment and then immediately calmed himself down. He sat back opposite and looked at Rose with thoughtful eyes. 'The big bad wolf…' Doctor Two muttered under his breath, 'the big baaaaad wolf' he said again, a little louder as if waiting for Rose's reaction.

Rose simply looked at him with stern eyes.

'Have you ever heard the fairytale 'Little Red Riding Hood?'' Doctor Two asked matter-of-factly.

Rose rolled her eyes and gave Doctor Two a look to say 'of course I have you twit.'

'Weeeell…' Doctor Two sat up and looked at Rose more intently. 'Fairytales, while mostly hogwash, tend to be rooted in truth. Whether ol' Cinder's actually existed is a hotly contested issue, but that there was a servant girl who was plucked up and married to by a prince, well that, that has certainly happened many a time over. There's also old truths embedded in them, life lessons you could say. Prettier people come out on top, don't take food from strangers, don't enter yourself into binding contracts unless you're rich enough to buy yourself out of them.'

Rose thought Doctor Two was straying a little off course.

'Aaaanyway, there's also the big truths. The metaphors. In a fairytale a toad is not always a toad. In Little Red Riding Hood, well, say you replaced Little Red with, I dunno, all the conscious life in the Universe. And say, you replaced little old sweet Grandma with the source of that life, a Mother Earth kind of figure. And then, well then, you have the…'

'Big Bad Wolf.' Rose interrupted, catching on fairly quick.

'Exactly.' Doctor Two's face remained serious, almost vicious in its certainty. 'So what does the Big Bad Wolf do? He dupes good old Red into telling him the best way to get to Grandma's house, and essentially instructs him on how he can devour Grandma, herself and her basket full of goodies.'

Rose was suddenly struck with horror.

'But how does the story end?'

Rose didn't need to think too hard about it. 'The woodcutter, he hears Red's screams when she recognizes the wolf and comes to her rescue. He saves her and slices the wolf open with his axe. The Grandma's still alive.'

'Precisely.' Doctor Two allowed himself a half-hearted smile.

'But…but who's the Woodcutter?'

'Rose,' Doctor Two blinked at her, 'the woodcutter is me.'


	10. Chapter 10 The Time Lord War

'Well…I say me, I really mean all of us. My race, I mean. The Time Lords.'

Rose cracked a smile. Just like him, she thought, to take full credit. Well, just like _her_ Doctor anyway.

'Of course, I am the last of my kind. In the battle against the Big Bad, well…' Doctor Two paused for a moment, seemingly in quiet consideration as to how much information he should dispel. 'They're gone, my planet destroyed. And until tonight I thought old wolfy boy had gone with it.'

Rose was suddenly incredibly confused. 'No, no, no, no! Hold on a minute…' she paused to search her memory. 'The Daleks, the Time War. That was the end of your home planet. None of this…Big Bad Wolf.'

Doctor Two raised his eyebrows and scrunched his nose. 'Wha…what's a "Dalek"?'

That was the moment. The moment Rose finally got it through her thick head. She was not in the same Universe as she once was. And things, history, all of that, were completely out of whack with what she once knew. She felt stupid and lonelier than ever. She was in a strange house with a strange man in a strange world where the Doctor never fought the Daleks, where she never saved him from an awful death by an army fleet of them. In this world there was no Rose Tyler who absorbed the Time Vortex and saved the Universe. Why was it only now that this had fully occurred to her?

She broke her silent panic with stern resolve. 'The Doctor, my Doctor,' Rose didn't feel quite right in saying that anymore, 'his greatest enemies were the Daleks. A race of genetically engineered beings who were completely removed from emotion, from feeling and put inside these…pepper-pot looking encasements in order to take over the Universe. The Doctor…lost his planet in a war with them, but they survived. We fought them, the Doctor and I…and Jack, we fought them side by side. But they came back. They're half the reason I'm in this parallel universe.'

Doctor Two's mouth gaped slightly. 'Pepper-pot things? My greatest enemies were pepper-pot things? Well, that's just not right.'

Rose could see he was making fun. She did see the funny side, but knew how deeply terrifying these supposed pepper-pot things could be. 'Push off. As if the 'Big Bad Wolf' is any better.' She giggled slightly as Doctor Two returned her smile gently.

'I only call it the 'Big Bad Wolf' for lack of a better term.' Doctor Two became grim. 'They're words, just like any others, it's what's behind them that's important, meaningful. This Big Bad Wolf, it's older than language, older than words, but it took words and embraced them, used them to traverse, infect, spread. Like Carionites do.'

'What's a Carionite?' Rose asked out of pure interest.

'You'd probably call them witches, they use words as power, scientific formula's to create and manipulate. You'd call it magic, I'd call it a very ancient, yet very advanced form of science.'

'Ah…' Rose contemplated this for a moment. 'Werewolves, witches, next you're going to tell me mermaids and Santa Claus exist.'

'Well, in a manner of speaking, Mermaids yes. Santa Claus was a part of Christian mythos later sponsored by Coca-Cola who is actualised in the, er…say, late 40th century. But that's another story altogether.'

Rose smirked again. 'So it spread…like a virus…?' she pressed, knowing full well that she was giving him a bit of 'I told you so' in that remark.

'Ah…yes, a bit.' Doctor Two gave her a sly wink before continuing. 'So they adopted personages, legends, stories that spread wildly throughout our universe, and beyond. In some cultures they were a god-like figure who reigned over all, in others, they were the monster that hid amongst the trees, or under the beds. They resided atop tall mountains, under bridges, beyond waterfalls. They were tales that inspired fear in the bravest of hearts and minds. They would arouse the worst in the best of people.'

'…But they were actual beings, right? Tangible living things?'

'Oh, brilliant question. They were physical, yes. But they only took form in the mind. You couldn't see them. Or touch them. Or hear them. But you knew they were there.'

'Kind of like…madness?' Rose was trying to stay with him.

'Yes, a bit like madness. Some say they were the root of all madness. But, I don't believe that. Madness is separate, distinct, a fact of life. Natural, you could say. This, this was unnatural. Entirely unnatural.'

Rose felt an ominous chill fall over the room. Rose looked up toward the dirty window above the door, the only light source in the room. It was still night, yet the moon, a full moon shone bright as day through it. 'What you're talking about sounds like…sounds like Satan?'

'Oh no…no, no, no, no…' Doctor Two shrank back from the question. 'No, if you'd want to draw comparisons, it would be more like God.'

Rose gave Doctor Two a sheepish look and then proceeded to scan the room with a sudden feeling of being watched. 'So…you went to war with God, then?' Rose crossed her legs and bent forward, resting her elbow on her knee and her chin on her palm.

'This isn't a religious debate Rose.' Doctor Two talked down to Rose as she raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him. 'I'm simply saying it was omnipotent in its influence, and seemingly unstoppable. That is until it tried to infiltrate Gallifrey.'

'So it tried to destroy your home planet?'

'No, it tried to in-fil-trate it.'

Doctor Two often sounded out words as if he was speaking to children. I suppose I am a child to him, Rose thought.

'It was clever, it knew not to infect our minds. In stead, it embedded itself within the TARDIS's while they grew. It knew what we were capable of and it wanted to manipulate us in the same way it had the rest of the Universe. Its' patience outwore Time Lord life-spans, and soon those who newly imprinted themselves onto their TARDIS became imprinted upon by it. And entire generation of Time Lords imprinted by the Big Bad Wolf, and all they wanted to do was to consume the Universe and what lay beyond. We became our own worst enemy. A mutinous plague.' Doctor Two bowed his head in mute despair. 'War ensued.'

'A war of Time Lords, how…how' Rose was stuck for words. She wanted to say something like 'how awful that must have been' or 'I'm so sorry', but these words all seemed too small for the occasion. She knew what a grand person the Doctor was, and how much more great armies of his kind would have been. How brilliant, how savage, how magnificent. 'What…what did you do?'

Doctor Two looked up in a perplexing gaze that was filled with the rage of vengeance and sorrow. 'I sliced its stomach open.' His face fell and his eyes grew woeful. 'I was, I was one of the young, but I was given an old TARDIS, a faulty TARDIS…'

'The chameleon circuit…' Rose interrupted.

'Yes, it was broken. I travelled, my first journey. I met her.' He paused, his eyes shone with memories in the moon light. 'I took her home, I took her to Gallifrey to meet with war, and blood, and terror. The old ones against the young. I was pulled aside, I was enlisted, entrusted to do what was 'right', what was 'good'. I was given the key.'

Doctor Two looked on the verge of tears and terror. Rose had never seen even her Doctor in quite a state.

'She tried to stop me, but I told her it was the 'right' thing to do. I told her that I _must_. And then it was done. My home, destroyed. Gone.'

His head was in his hands. He didn't look up for a very long while. Rose's imagination filled with images of fire and blood and death, and she felt quite lost within them. Eventually Rose asked a very practical question. 'But…but how did that destroy it? I mean, how did you _believe_ that destroyed it?'

Doctor Two looked up. His eyes were red and puffed. 'Well you see, the thing about fairytales is they can get their metaphors a little confused. The Universe was in a state of turmoil and the uninfected Time Lords were out to set things straight. They all converged on Gallifrey to heal the sick world. Gallifrey was Grandma's house. It followed the universe there. I trapped it inside, and I burnt the house down.'


	11. Chapter 11 Piecing Puzzles Wasted Wishes

Rose stared at her feet very hard. She wasn't normally all that quick in piecing things together. She never did so well in school and being a shop assistant hadn't taught her much more then how to look like you're working when you're very much not. But years spent with the Doctor cleared her mind, made her quicker then she thought she ever could be. But right now, she wished very hard that she hadn't pieced this puzzle together so quickly.

'I brought it with me.' Rose felt a lone tear roll down her cheek.

Doctor Two looked upon her with pity so intense that Rose could feel it prickle on the back of her neck.

'It's all my fault. If I hadn't…' Rose choked on her words, her throat red raw with sorrowful guilt. 'If I hadn't absorbed the time vortex, if I hadn't looked into the heart of the TARDIS…I wouldn't…I wouldn't have infected myself.'

Doctor Two went to say something, but Rose interrupted him abruptly.

'He said "You have something of the Wolf about you."'

'Who did?' Doctor Two asked, shifting toward Rose with slight trepidation.

'The werewolf. That guy. I brought it with me, this Big Bad Wolf, into this universe that you had already saved. I thought it was a message to get me back to the Doctor. But it's not, is it? It's the end of the universe, and it's my fault.' Rose gave a loud sob before sucking it back and pounding her fist on the floor.

Doctor Two scoffed harder then Rose had ever heard him scoff before. 'Your fault? HA!' He gave her a huge grin, crinkling his red, swollen eyes. 'Don't be ridiculous.' He curled his lips and took a deep breath through his nose. 'Nah, it's nobodies fault, really. Just because you were outsmarted by an omniscient being doesn't make that your fault. You can't help it; only human.' Doctor Two nudged Roses' foot with his own, seemingly in an attempt to example her humanity.

Rose gave him an incredulous look, but couldn't help lending him an earnest grin as she wiped her nose on her sleeve.

'It's clever, you see. Cleverer than most.'

'Cleverer than you, then?' Rose looked to him with wide inquisitive eyes.

'Well…you know…I wouldn't say cleverer, cause that's, well that's impossible.' Doctor Two scratched the back of his head as his nostril raised and his voice grew just a tad bit squeaky. ' But, just, probably, actually, just ahead of me a little, is all.'

Rose chuckled. 'You're completely mad, you are.' She shoved his shoulder, but her smile quickly disappeared off her face as a thought occurred to her. 'But how…how did it survive, Doctor? How could it have made it to the other Universe? How did it get into the other TARDIS?'

'Well…it's a mystery…' Doctor Two paused, looking to the small dirty window as the shimmer of sunshine glinted through like a happy reminder that outside still exists. 'But I like a good mystery, Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, all that. But one thing is for certain, this is a mystery that won't be solved sitting in a daft old hallway.' With that, he got to his feet, stretching out a hand to Rose.

As Rose looked upon the hand, she was reminded of her Doctor. The moment he grabbed her hand and told her to 'Run' when they'd first met. The moment she'd held his hand firm and told him that just them was how she liked it. The moment his outstretched hand clawed for her as she was sucked into the void, if only she could have reached, none of this, not any, would have happened. But here she was, and she couldn't go back, she couldn't change any of it. She took a deep breath and grabbed his hand. Her body felt wobbly as she used all his arm strength to help her up. His hand was warm and she was so grateful for it. Another moment with the Doctor. Quite suddenly and unexpectedly, she felt closer to him than ever before.

They stepped outside into a morning fresh fog. The sun, unusually bright, poked through pockets of cloud in the sky. As the fog dispersed and the day set in, they walked steadfast toward the tower, clinging to each others hands the entire way. As they approached it once again, Rose could almost see what Doctor Two meant by 'beautiful' when she gazed upon all its intricacies and baffling workmanship shining richly under the sun.

'Well.' Doctor Two said abruptly while rubbing his hands together, 'we have a day to make sure this thing works perfectly.'

Rose was caught off guard. 'I…don't understand.' She had all but forgotten about the purpose of the construction before them; let alone what was happening tomorrow.

Doctor Two turned to her, grabbing both Roses shoulders and looking at her square in the eyes.

Rose melted slightly under his grip.

'We need to know more about what is going on, not just in this universe, but in your one.' Doctor Two paused momentarily before adding, 'your old one.'

Rose gave him a weak smile.

'Our only chance is to get you to the other side, get you to your Doctor.'

Rose felt a little stumped. She knew what he meant, that they needed to know more to save both Universes, but she was also punished with a menacing question. 'What if that's exactly what they want?'

Doctor Two let go of her arms and ran his hands through his hair. 'Yes…well…'

'I mean, somehow, conveniently, as these wolves were sent through the rift, so too was a way for me to get back home. A way for me to find the Doctor. And I mean, on the same night it happens, I bump into you?' Rose's thoughts were all fusing together as she was saying them. She turned away from Doctor Two, pacing up and down the pavement, turning thoughts in her mind. 'It's like before, Bad Wolf, it all lead up to a moment, it brought me to that moment, and I thought I made it happen, but it wasn't me at all. It's a bit like…it's a bit like fate. But this time it's not leading to saving the universe, it's leading to its destruction. Everything so far has told me to go back, told me to go back and find my Doctor. But what if, what if that's exactly what will make the universe end?'

At that moment Rose thought she had hit the nail on the head, but as she turned to Doctor Two to gauge his reaction, she was shocked by his sudden absence.

'WHAT WERE YOU SAYING!?'

Rose looked up to the top of the tower. Doctor Two was hanging off the side like a monkey swinging on the branches of the tower. After shouting down to her, he put his sonic screwdriver between his teeth and climbed further up.

'HOW DID YOU GET UP THERE SO QUICKLY!?' Rose shouted between cupped hands.

'WHAT!?' Doctor Two shouted back.

'HOW DID YOU…oh never mind,' Rose sighed to herself, clamped her fists by her side and marched to the tower. As she climbed the ladders and winding stairs to the top, she grumbled to herself.

'I come up with an idea…a good idea…a bloody revelation…and he bloody…he dismisses it… "you're only human…what could you know?"…that's what he's thinking...Time Lord chauvinistic bast…Oh hi!' Rose gave his a very wide, very fake smile. 'Made it up here alright, then?'

'Oh yes!' Doctor Two had a jaunty glee in his voice. 'When you were jabbering on…'

'Jabbering on! I was not…'

'_I_…'Doctor Two emphasized the 'I' to shut her up. 'I had an epiphany.'

'Rose crossed her arms and looked away. 'Oh yeah?'

'Yeah.' Doctor Two gave her a charming smile and proceeded to tinker with a few circuitry plates in the frame.

Rose turned away, fuming inside as she climbed down the ladder by her feet.

'Wait!' Doctor Two called out to her, only just noticing her retreat.

Rose paused. She looked up at him, not saying a word.

'It's true…it is what they…it…wants.' Rose cocked her eyebrow at him. 'But there's nothing else we can do.' Doctor Two looked very dark in the grated shadows of the tower.

'I…yeah, ok, whatever.' Rose looked down. She didn't look up again until she reached the bottom of the tower. She thought of nothing as she journeyed home except getting to a shower and her bed. But as she finally rested her head on her pillow it was all she could do to shut her eyes. Her mind raced in terror at the thought of seeing the Doctor tomorrow. It didn't feel right anymore. In fact, it felt like the complete opposite of what she should be doing. For the first time she wished that the tower wouldn't work. She shut her eyes hard, clenched her fists and wished that she could never return home again.


End file.
